General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has announced that its Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper Extended Range (Reaper ER) fleet has achieved a historic milestone with the first operational fielding of Reaper ER by the US Air Force (USAF) last month.
Royal Australian Air Force personnel began training on armed Reaper drones in the US in February, less than a week after Washington said it would begin exporting the weapons system.
Although no decision has been taken on the Australian purchase of systems, the decision to send RAAF personnel to train on the MQ-9 Reaper drone was a signal that Australia is considering it, and it is thought the upcoming Defence white Paper will clearly outline Australia's intentions. Britain is the only country now flying armed US drones, but France and Italy fly Reaper surveillance drones.
A Reaper can be transformed into a Reaper ER through the integration of a field-retrofittable modification package consisting of two wing-mounted fuel tanks which significantly extend the aircraft’s maximum endurance.
Reaper’s original external payload carriage configuration remains unchanged, providing the aircraft with a “mix and match” capability that allows it to carry both fuel tanks and an assortment of external payloads.
To increase thrust and improve takeoff performance at higher gross weights, an alcohol/water injection system and a four-bladed propeller were incorporated, along with a heavyweight trailing arm landing gear system that enables safe ground operations at the heavier gross weight.
Defense Tech has also reported the MQ-9 Reaper has successfully flown night-time missions over the ocean and also teamed with fighter jets in a strike exercise off the Florida coast.
“This was the first demonstration that the MQ-9 could complete the full kill-chain in a maritime environment,” LTCOL Travis Norton, chief of the Joint Readiness Branch at the Joint Staff, said Monday at the Air and Space Conference outside Washington DC.
“They also integrated with other aircraft,” including the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter “in a maritime environment where the adversary was swarming boats,” he said. “And they worked together very effectively.”
One of the unmanned aircraft – known as a remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA – zoomed out to “get the big picture of where all these boats were and pass it to the fighters,” while another determined who was friend and foe, LTCOL Norton said.
The use of the drones sped up the kill-chain, he said.